Mining and large scale excavating operations may require fleets of haulage vehicles to transport excavated material, such as ore or overburden, from the area of excavation to a destination. For such an operation to be productive and profitable, the fleet of haulage vehicles must be efficiently operated. Efficient operation of a fleet of haulage vehicles is affected by numerous parameters. For example, the grade and character of haul roads and the amount of payload have direct effects on haulage cycle time, equipment component wear, and fuel usage which, in turn, directly affect productivity and profitability of the operation.
In order to permit the fleet of haulage vehicles to effectively transport material, haul roads must be of suitable character and grade to reduce rolling resistance, permit an efficient operator gear shift pattern, and otherwise facilitate efficient haulage vehicle operation. Beyond the impact of a particular grade and a particular rolling resistance on operational efficiency, grade variation and rolling resistance variation can adversely affect the operation. Additionally, payloads must be monitored to ensure against overload or payload variations that may result in operational inefficiencies.
Haulage vehicles in a fleet may be provided with technology for monitoring various operating parameters in order, for example, to provide an assessment of equipment maintenance requirements, or to determine whether payloads are within specifications, or to detect abnormal road conditions. Data from monitoring equipment may be collected, processed, and compared to a standard in order to give an indication of corrective measures that may be desired or required.
A method for detecting an abnormal condition of a road surface is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,936 to Schricker, wherein a plurality of machine parameters are sensed as a mobile machine traverses a segment of a road. These parameters are then used to calculate a resistance factor for the road segment. The calculated resistance factor is compared with an average resistance factor and an abnormal condition of the road surface is thus detected. However, the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,936 does not envision a process of providing an overarching service to improve haulage system performance. Rather, the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,936 is limited to detection of road segments that vary from the norm.
There is a market for various monitoring technology for a haulage vehicle fleet and a market for equipment and services that enable the corrective action needed when monitoring technology indicates that corrective action is necessary. In addition, there is a market for the services of an entity capable of providing the expertise and marshalling the resource necessary to improve the overall efficiency of a large scale haulage operation.
The present disclosure is directed to a method and system that both enable and provide a service for improving haulage efficiency for a fleet of haulage vehicles.